Approach to Services

Attachment Matters Counsellors use a developmentalist approach based on findings from attachment, neuro-scientific, and functional behaviourist, research. We hold that the experiences individuals have from the point of conception, to around five years after birth, are initially processed in the brain at a sensory level, and combine with genetic elements to create neural pathways which link and activate different parts of the brain and body, including via the central nervous system.

When similar experiences are repeated in the early years, neural pathways become reinforced, leading to increasingly strong links between certain perceptions, emotions, physical reactions, thoughts/cognitions, and behaviour. Strong links can then become habituated into automatic patterns of functioning, for better or worse, across later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Sometimes permanent patterns of functioning are adaptive, and we can navigate the ups and downs of life with resilience, healthy coping, pleasure, and satisfaction. Other times they aren’t, and we can be left vulnerable to stress and reliant on less healthy coping. We might even find ourselves stuck repeating old cycles of behaviour, feeling unable to break free of habits we no longer want. The good news is that even after childhood the brain continues to build pathways, so, with hard work and targeted intervention old patterns can be re-wired, and behaviour changed.

The understanding that psychological functioning has its origins in very early development and contributes to life-long health has slowly but surely permeated service delivery in Australian communities over the last two decades. And the implications have been clear; child-caregiver relationships are the most potent factor for laying the foundations of mental and physical health in early childhood which last across the lifespan. Because of this, while children are central to the services we provide, their caregivers are central to every intervention. As such, our child-centred family services typically require the participation of children and their most special grown-ups.